What is Online Affiliate Marketing?

In my opinion, online affiliate marketing is the best and easiest way to make a full time income because you get to work from the comfort of your own home, make your own schedule so that you can spend most of your time doing whatever you love to do, and you can make as much money as you want, depending on the work that you are willing to put into it.

But what is online affiliate marketing? and how is it done?

What is it?

Affiliate marketing is a term that tends to seem as if it is some type of complicated system that you need to go to school to learn, but in all reality it is something that is pretty simple.

An affiliate is basically like a sales person. If you walk into a retail store like Lowe’s Home Improvement, you will see several employees that are there to help you find exactly what you need, so that you can purchase it.

That is all online affiliate marketing is, you simply help people find the products that they are looking for, tell them about the products, and you earn a commission every time that you get someone to purchase something.

That’s literally all it is. With affiliate marketing it’s possible to make large amount of income online simply by promoting other people’s products.

How is it done?

Hundreds of companies, such as Amazon, have affiliate programs where you can go through the products that they offer, select the ones that you want to promote, and get an affiliate link that is specific to you.

Every time that someone clicks on your affiliate link, and ends up making a purchase, you get a certain percent of the money that they spend at the store.

So naturally your main objective is to get your affiliate links out in front of as many people that you possibly can. The more people that see your link, the more likely it is that one of them will click it, and continue to make a purchase.

Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t just throw your links out there and expect people to click them, you have to give them a reason to click them.

You have to provide them with helpful information that directly relates to the items.

For example, if you were trying to get people to buy Clorox Wipes, you might target house maids, and explain to them why Clorox Wipes are better than other wipes, and list several outside-of-the-box ways that they can be used around the house.

How to get your links in front of people.

Over the years affiliate marketers have developed several ways to get their links out in front of people, here are a few of those techniques.

Websites

Emails

Videos

Social Media

While these are just a few of the ways to get your links out, they tend to be the most effective. Now here are some brief explanations of each are done.

Affiliate Websites

In my opinion, creating an affiliate website is the most efficient, and reliable way to get your affiliate links in front of thousands of people who are ready to buy.

The thought of creating a website tends to throw a lot people off, because they have the idea that creating a website takes a bunch of programming, and graphic design skills, but you that could not be further from the truth.

Websites can be created almost instantly, with very little effort, thanks to the thousands of design templates that have been created by incredibly skilled individuals.

After you spend a little bit of time creating the website, then you can add anything that you want to it.

This includes product reviews, and information that is related to the items that you want to sell.

Creating a website is my number 1 recommended way to approach affiliate marketing, mainly because you can then implement the other marketing tactics.

You can collect email addresses from your visitors, create social media accounts that go with the website, and even make videos. All of which can be used to share your affiliate links.

Email Marketing

What better way to get people to see your click your affiliate links, than by sending it directly to their email inbox?

There are several ways to collect emails, but the easiest way to get them is through you website. If someone is one your website, then they are interested in the content and products that your website offers.

The best way to get someone’s email address it to offer them something of value, and give it to them once they enter their email.

For example, if someone was on your website that was about making house maid’s lives easier, you might offer a highly detailed article that lists how to get out even the most impossible stains. Then you would simply make it so that they can have access to that article, if they simply enter their email address.

Once you have their email address you can send them emails that relate directly to what they are interested in, and you can include your affiliate links with them.

Just keep in mind that these people can block your emails at anytime, so you have to make sure that you are not spamming them with emails that are just trying to sell them things.

You have to send them legitimately interesting and helpful emails, and subtly include your links.

Video Marketing

When was the last time that you watched a YouTube video, or any other type of video online? It probably wasn’t too long ago, especially if you watched the video that I included in this post.

Millions of people around the world watch thousands of hours of video every single day, that’s millions of people that you have the chance to market to through videos.

You can create videos that contain information that is related to the items that your trying to promote, and subtly put your affiliate links in with them.

Create a YouTube channel, post videos, and share them on your websites, your email lists, and on your social media accounts.

Social Media Marketing

By now you’ve probably realized that it does not matter which method that you use (Website, Email, Video, or Social Media) the basic idea always stays the same.

Create helpful content, add your affiliate links, and share it with people. It is no different with social media marketing.

Create a social media profile, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, or any other website, and start adding content that will be interesting to the people that you are trying to reach.

That’s all there is to it.

Conclusion

Online affiliate marketing is a relatively simple way to make a reliable income online. If you get some guidance, and put some work into building up a base of people to promote your products to, you can absolutely make a living online.

Where to get started.

Wealthy Affiliate is where I got started in my online career, and is where I continue to learn about everything that has to do with affiliate marketing. I can honestly say that signing up for their free membership was the first step towards a new and improved life for me.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to leave me a comment below, and I will be sure to get back to you.

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This article has 8 Comments

I am live in Canada and wonder if there is anyone in Canada who has attempted to do this online business? I am willing to put in the time and energy that is needed, but I am skeptical. Also concerned as to how to find a “niche”. Any suggestions?

Yes, there are a lot of people in Canada, and other countries all over the world who are successful with affiliate marketing. In fact, the creators of my top ranked program are actually from Canada, and they are millionaires thanks to their online businesses. I was skeptical at first as well, but after doing research on affiliate marketing I was convinced that it’s an honest and great way to make money online. When it comes to finding a niche, I always recommend picking a topic that is narrow, interesting to you, and has people you can help interested in it as well. If you are serious about it I suggest you click here to read more about my top program, because they cover all of the steps it takes to be successful. Including choosing a niche.

Hi! I m in Australia and I have an Android tablet. I signed up to WA a couple of years ago and found it a bit daunting. I m not a creative writer , so will this cause me problems? Is it necessary to have overseas bank accounts? I have tried a few on line money ideas but only seem to lose money.
Thanks,
Dot

WA can certainly be daunting in the beginning, but if you just take it one step at a time in the order they lay it out, you’ll be able to make it.
I’m not a very creative writer either, so I don’t think that would be a problem. Sometimes you’ll get writers block, but everyone does at some point. You just have to keep writing and not think too much about it. As long as you have a bank account that is compatible with PayPal you will be fine. Almost all companies will pay you through PayPal, then you can transfer that money into your regular bank account. Unfortunately you need to spend some money online in order to make it, but in my opinion WA is the best place to spend that money.

If you want to give WA another try you can sign up through this link right here. If you do I’ll be notified that you joined and send you a message within a few hours. That way you’ll be able to contact me so I can help you when you need it!

nice article on affiliate marketing, thanks for sharing.
I am new in affiliate marketing and learning it and have a plan to launch new website soon. And at current stage i am looking into different affiliate platforms and trying to understand them. Could you help me how i can choose right platform to take start with affiliate marketing? Is there any criteria to choose affiliate marketing?

I am thinking to make an affiliate website like coupons or cashback because I have some basic information about these affiliate marketing types and now I want to make a website on one of them. As you have recommended wealthy affiliate in you post but i did’t found anything whether they are providing support to build coupons and cashback site or not.

One of my friend recommend me revglue’s revembed technology ” revglue.com/blog-detail/5-how-to-setup-a-uk-discount-voucher-website-in-ten-minutes ” for this purpose as its a UK based registered company but i am little confused while using it because its a new website. Anyone has a experience with it. Please help me in this respect.

If I’m not exactly sure if I understand correctly. When you say “an affiliate website like coupons or cashback” do you mean a website that makes money by recommending people to coupon and cashback websites? Or are you thinking about starting an actual coupon/cashback website?

If you are starting a website that will make money as an affiliate to coupon and cashback website, Wealthy Affiliate can help you do that. I actually make a portion of my income from recommending people to various cashback websites.

However if you are talking about building your own cashback website, unfortunately I don’t know too much about that and WA doesn’t have any training for that.

I am at home with my babies and really want to contribute to our families income. All of this seems overwhelming to me, but I don’t know much about computers to start with. I have bought another money sucking website and lost money. Is this really any different?

In my opinion, affiliate marketing is perfect for someone who is a stay at home mom. It takes actual time and effort, but if you are willing to consistently work at it, I’m confident you can succeed. I recommend checking out Wealthy Affiliate, they have all of the training, tools, and support you need to succeed at affiliate marketing. I know after losing money to a scam it can be difficult to trust any other programs, but WA has a completely free starter membership that allows you check out what they offer so you can see that it’s not a scam.